Triangular Photography

Some of my most successful photos share a similar composition – arranging the points of interest in the photo in a triangular arrangement.

In ‘Blue Heron, Golden Evening’ the shapes of two prominent distant mountains is repeated by the branch in the water, each forming a point of interest, with the third and primary point of interest additionally accentuated by the heron silhouette.



In ‘Hairtrigger Lake and Albert Edward’, not only is the shape of Mount Albert Edward juxtaposed with its opposite in shape & colour, Mount Regan (a beautiful natural partnership!) but the third main point of interest - the pyramidal rock in the lake - is evocative of another mountain in miniature. There are other triangular relationships within the photo: the counterpoints of the dark shapes of the trees and their reflection in the lake for example.

The viewer’s eye is carried from point to point of interest giving an otherwise peaceful scene the energy of implied movement.

Triangular composition is related to the well-known ‘Golden Section’ proportions of classical Greece. Leonardo da Vinci also described these ideal proportions in terms of the human body.

Nature's Totems

Seeing dead tree trunks in a bog recently started me thinking about how much Pacific Northwest totems were inspired by these natural sculptures.









Pacific Northwest totems have long been a subject of historical & artistic study. These monumental sculptures carved mostly from western red cedar decay eventually in the rainforest environment. Few examples of poles carved before 1900 exist, but 18th century accounts of European explorers along the coast indicate that poles certainly existed prior to 1800, though smaller and few in number. Totem pole development is thought to have progressed from house posts, funerary containers, and memorial markers into symbols of clan and family wealth and prestige. Pole construction is thought to have centered around the Haida people of Haida Gwaii and spread to the Tsimshian & Tlingit, then down the coast of BC to northern Washington.



However I haven’t seen much written about the origins of the art in terms of its inspiration and derivation from natural sources. On a recent trip to Malcolm Island off north Vancouver Island where the hypermaritime climate encourages the growth of hemlock, spruce and cedar, I began to see the connection between natural sculptures and the indigenous art form.




The second-growth forest of Malcolm Island is interspersed with pockets of acidic bog punctuated by dead trees. Swamps, marshes & bogs are full of these snags many of which have fantastical shapes. It takes just a small stretch of imagination to begin to see animal faces and figures in the naturally sculpted forms. Protrusions and holes would easily become inspiration for carving. The snags would have an animistic presence when seen in the mists that are characteristic of the Pacific Northwest.